Home Secretary Suella Braverman to change law to stop channel migrants

The home secretary said she will change the law to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Suella Braverman told the Conservative party conference on Tuesday she will prevent modern slavery laws being "abused" by people smugglers.

The government needs to make plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda "work", she added.

More than 33,500 people have come to the UK this year on small boats, the highest figure since records began.

Since June, migrants who have travelled to the UK through a country deemed to be "safe" - including France - are "inadmissible" for asylum status, with a few exceptions.

Under the system put in place by Ms Braverman's predecessor as home secretary, Priti Patel, refugees cannot claim asylum in the territorial waters of the UK.

Ms Braverman said she would work closely with the French to help cut channel crossings.

There would be "no quick fixes" and the problem was "chronic", she warned.

"I will look to bring forward legislation to make it clear that the only route to the UK is through a safe and legal route," she said.

Under the plans, migrants "deliberately entering the UK illegally from a safe country should be swiftly returned to their home country or relocated to Rwanda".

The Rwanda asylum plan was established in April to take asylum seekers who cross the Channel to the UK on a one-way ticket to Rwanda to claim asylum there instead.

The government has said the scheme would discourage others from crossing the Channel.

The first flight was cancelled minutes before take-off, in June, after an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.

Ms Braverman accused the court of "undermining the sovereignty of our borders".

Speaking at a fringe event at the party's conference in Birmingham, Ms Braverman said it was her "dream" to have a Rwanda flight depart before Christmas.

During her speech to the main conference, she said: "It is not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders."

"It is not bigoted to say we have too many asylum seekers abusing the system.

"It is not xenophobic to say mass and rapid migration places pressure on housing, public services and community relations."

The Modern Slavery Act, introduced by former prime minister Theresa May, will be overhauled to stop migrants avoiding deportation, Ms Braverman said.

The home secretary said many of those arriving across the channel were Albanians who had paid smugglers to enter the UK.

"The truth is that many of them are not modern slaves and their claims of being trafficked are lies," she said.

"Convicted paedophiles and rapists" were also making "egregious" applications to remain in the UK under the Modern Slavery Act, she added.